On one end of the spectrum, there are children who don't get enough exercise and run the risk of being overweight or obese.
On the other end are children who participate in highly organized competitive sports. They face a different risk.
Knee injuries involving tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus are most common among professional athletes, but have risen in children over the past 12 years, say orthopaedic surgeons from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who presented their findings recently at the American Academy of Pediatrics annual meeting in Boston.
Documents for the first time
"Many people in sports medicine have assumed that these knee injuries have increased in recent years among children," said J. Todd Lawrence, M.D., Ph.D., orthopaedic surgeon at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and primary investigator of this study. "Our study confirmed our hypothesis that, at least at our large academic pediatric hospital, knee injuries are an ever-growing problem for children and adolescents involved in sports."
Lawrence said that people have suggested that greater participation in sports, increased clinician awareness of the signs and symptoms of ACL and meniscus tears, and advances in imaging technology may account for this increase.
For the study, researchers compared spinal injuries with knee injuries, since both at one time occurred at the same relative rate. Between 1999 and 2011, however, the researchers found that spinal injuries increased just one percent while ACL tears increased 11 percent and meniscus tears increased 14 percent.
Dr. Ted Ganley, one of the study's co-authors and the director of the Sports Medicine and Performance Center at Children's Hospital, said he hopes this research will call to light the importance of ongoing research efforts to identify pediatric and adolescent athletes who may be at risk for ACL and meniscus injuries. He says it's important to encourage coaches, parents and athletes to consider incorporating injury prevention programs into their workouts.
